Hashbrown potatoes are typically prepared by forming elongated strands or shreds of fresh cut potatoes into a patty which is then fried on both sides. Cutting, shredding, or grating potato pieces into elongated strands to form the patties ruptures the potato cells and releases free starch. This free starch acts as a binder which adheres the individual potato strands to one another to form a patty and maintain the patty intact when it is turned to fry both sides.
Another critical feature of hashbrowns is their ability to brown during the cooking operation to provide the browned hashbrown coloring on both sides of the patty. Difficulties in producing the desirable browned color are encountered with potatoes for several months after harvesting, as these potatoes have not yet developed sufficient level of reducing sugars. The browning of the adhesive mixture of potato shreds provides the flavor and consistency that makes hashbrown potatoes so unique and appealing.
Many attempts have been made in the past to formulate dry or dehydrated hashbrown potato products which duplicate the appearance and flavor of fresh-made hashbrowns. U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,856 to Willard, for instance, discloses a method for forming a dehydrated fabricated potato product for use in the preparation of hashbrown potatoes. Other methods of making similar dry hashbrown products are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,634,105 and 3,991,222 to Beck; 3,725,087 to Miller; 3,410,702 to Frank; 3,635,729 to Englar; and 3,650,776 to Tschirgi.
Another form of dehydrated potatoes which can be fried to produce "home fried" potatoes are thin slices. These slices are traditionally used for making casserole dishes such as scalloped potatoes. Because of the longer rehydration time required for the thicker potato slices, they are not as well favored by institutional users for the preparation of home fries. For those who do prefer this shape, the problems of adhesion and optimum sugar content for browning are the same as described for shredded hashbrown products.
In general, each of the above-noted patents involve dehydrating the potato by hot air drying. Typically, this involves a processing step in which a bed of potatoes (either fresh or reconstituted) are placed in a multistage, conveyer belt dryer and subjected to heated air for a period of several hours. As is known to those skilled in the art, processing and heating the potatoes diminishes the potato flavor of the final product.
This processing problem is compounded by the use of binder materials which may be added during processing of the potatoes to enable formation of stable patties during final cooking. The Englar '729 and Tschirgi '776 patents, for instance, teach the use of free starches which may be applied in an aqueous solution to the processed potatoes before completion of the drying process. This binder may cause the processed potatoes to also bind together during the dehydration process. This requires additional heating to heat the bound strands of processed potato pieces and causes further loss of flavor and additional costs for the final product. Additionally, with the use of a binder, processing problems such as clumping and the formation of "blow holes" within a potato bed and adherence of the potatoes to parts of the processing equipment may also occur.
The Frank '702 patent approached this prior art problem by adding a potato binder (made by drying cooked potatoes that had been riced into small strands) to conventionally diced or shredded potatoes after they had been dried. This process produced a product having a non-homogenous mealy texture. In addition, the previously mentioned processing problems associated with prolonged heating for drying the potatoes were still present.
As is apparent, there is a need in the art for a dehydration process in which food products can be economically and efficiently dehydrated in a minimum time to reduce flavor loss to a minimum. Additionally, there is a need in the art for an economical processed dehydrated potato product which functions in the same manner as a fresh-made hashbrown potato patty and in which the potato flavor of the final product has not been lost in processing. The novel and unique dehydration process of the present invention satisfies these prior art needs. Moreover, dehydrated hashbrown potatoes processed in accordance with the process of the present invention closely resemble the appearance and texture of fresh-made hashbrown potatoes and can be easily rehydrated and prepared by an end user.